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Who in the digital marketing world doesn’t want to rank higher on Google search results? In order to do that you must stay on top of the latest SEO news and rules. So far in 2015 it has become clear that mobile-optimisation is on its way to becoming a must. So much so that Google already announced its plans to expand the use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal and to penalise search rankings of sites that are not mobile-ised. This article will cover the specifics of Google’s requirements as well as how to make sure your website is mobile-optimised.

Pay per click advertising, or PPC, can be an integral part of any company’s marketing strategy, if done well. PPC is a form of advertising where you pay each time a person clicks your ad. A customer searches a query and your ad attracts their attention, generating a click through to your website. When done correctly, it’s a cost effective and targeted method of online marketing. This article will focus on the five parts that make up a PPC Ad to better understand and implement this into a successful marketing strategy.

If you practice Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) then you’re aware of the debate over small versus long landing pages and how it misses the point. At the end of the day, different products need different landing pages. A beautiful picture with a short description might work for a wristwatch but not so much for a $2,000 software product. Long and short landing pages both have their time and place, but what if it came down to more than the product? What if it also came down to the actual person looking at the page?

There was a time (back in 2009) when the comment section on a site was central to the product. Every detail was scrutinised, interactions debated and “comments per article” were even considered KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). Fast forward five years later to 2014, and the debate is this: though it was never the intention, time has shown that comment sections often create negative space and usually provide a negative experience for the reader, writer and publisher. This article intends to layout today’s debate with solid pros and cons to help you decide if and how you should integrate a comment section for your content.

Putting together an effective landing page as part of your inbound marketing strategy can be tricky but sometimes the best starting point is browsing through successful ones to light inspiring sparks. Here are some of the most creative & effective favourites, regardless of industry.

In mathematical terms, the task of updating a website is a “constant” which means it’s ongoing, all year round, month to month or even on a daily basis. All businesses with an updated online marketing strategy know this very well and act on it. There’s nothing more disappointing than when you come across a site with great content but it’s so outdated that it’s hard to keep browsing through. This is why I’ve compiled a list of the most outdated website features today, so those of you who manage a business/site can read and hopefully not check anything off.

If you’re building your website with the WordPress content management system (CMS), at some stage you’re going to be faced with the question: “Should I use a custom designed theme or buy one ready-made?”

There’s no simple answer one way or the other, but here we’ll look at a few of the pros and cons, as well as talking about what type of businesses are best suited to using bought vs custom themes.

Before we begin, let’s look at some of the terms we’ll be using:

This article is about WordPress.org (self-hosted) websites – NOT sites hosted on the WordPress.com blogging platform (how confusing is that?!)

When we talk about a “theme” we’re talking about the template design that informs how the site will look as well as how it functions

A “custom” theme is one that’s built specifically for the site on which it’s to be used, often built from the ground up or from a sort of bare bones developer template

A bought theme is often also referred to as a “premium” theme. This refers to pre-made themes available from online theme shops for anything from $20-$100 dollars per theme.

What is CloudFlare? In my own simple words: A website supercharger that also acts as a 24-hour bodyguard, in most cases, free of charge. In the words of their creators:

“CloudFlare protects and accelerates any website online. Once your website is a part of the CloudFlare community, its web traffic is routed through our intelligent global network. We automatically optimise the delivery of your web pages so your visitors get the fastest page load times and best performances. We also block threats and limit abusive bots and crawlers from wasting your bandwidth and server resources. The result: CloudFlare-powered websites see a significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks.”